Turning Point
by SignedSealedWritten
Summary: The team secretly takes Reid out for his 25th birthday, twoshot.
1. Chapter 1

**Criminal Minds**

_Author's Note: _

_Today is my younger brother's birthday – he's turning fifteen. _ _I try to make something for him every year, and this is the thing this year. So, happy birthday little brother! I know that you're not exactly "little" anymore, but you'll always be my little brother. I know that they celebrated Reid's birthday in the first season, and he turned 24 then – this is his 25__th__ birthday. I'm going to say that Elle's still there because the seasons don't always go as if a year has passed – his 25__th__ birthday could have easily been in the first season as well and gone without mentioning, since they don't always mention the character's birthdays. Either way, enjoy. _

_This will be a two part story – the first part, this chapter, being much shorter than the next chapter. The reason for this is that I wanted it to be posted on my brother's birthday so that he could see it. xD_

"Kid, we're going out tonight." Derek Morgan announced, leaning across the two desks to speak to the younger agent. "Whole team, night out." The team at the BAU did this sort of thing once every few months, a break from the hectic life that they held at work. It was one of the chances that the agents had to remind themselves that psychopaths weren't the only thing out there in the world- the rare chance to see their teammates in an environment completely free of cases and stress.

"And if you don't come with us, JJ is going to string you up by your toes." Elle tossed in, nodding her head towards the blonde liaison across the room, typing away at a laptop. Elle grinned, lacing her fingers behind her head. "She's been planning this night for awhile." She stood and moved to sit on the younger agent's desk, crossing her ankles. "Whatd'ya say, genius? Is it your toes or enjoying the night?"

Reid lifted his eyes, tapping a yellow number two pencil on the surface of his desk. "Option three is filing you for harassment with the state of Virginia." He said, lifting his eyebrows.

"You wouldn't do that, Reid." Morgan said, a wide grin making its way onto his face. "Because I still have pictures from the 2005 Christmas party, and it'd be a shame if they made it into the wrong hands."

"You're blackmailing me?" Reid squeaked, his face a mask of badly disguised horror and embarrassment.

Elle winked and jumped lightly from his desk, her high heels making a distinguished clack on the tile.

"You bet, kid." Said Morgan, his grin only widening at the genius's horrified face.

--

It wasn't that Reid didn't want to join his team for a night on the town. They'd done it countless times, and Reid always enjoyed it. Whenever they did, it always turned out to be a night of tremendous fun – the interruption from a new case depending. Tonight, though, Reid wasn't up to pretending to be happy.

It was his twenty fifth birthday today.

For most people, birthdays were a happy time. They marked the only day of the year that was completely for them, and them alone. It marked the day that friends would celebrate him or her, that they'd go out and have a good time, forget their problems, because it was a day that they were supposed to be happy.

Reid had rarely felt this phenomenon on his birthdays. The previous year, yes, had been fantastic – despite a rather embarrassing birthday hat, but he hardly expected the team to remember such an insignificant date again. The tickets from Gideon had honestly been one of the greatest gifts he'd received. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the odd gifts he got from his mother – when she remembered his birthday – a leather covered notebook on his 6th birthday, he remembered that one well, a book full of Chaucer's stories when he was eight … the gifts didn't really matter at all, as long as his mother remembered. As long as his mother wasn't having one of her episodes that day.

Those had been his childhood birthdays.

His eighteenth birthday had marked, like all other boys, his move to being a man and not a teenager. Most young men spent that day with the friends that Reid didn't have, laughing and enjoying the move to the newest phase of their lives.

Reid spent it filing out the final paperwork for sending his mother to an asylum.

His birthdays were always marred by that fact, that it was the anniversary of a different date he was reminded of on the day that was meant to be for him. It wasn't exactly something someone – eidetic memory or not – could forget.


	2. Chapter 2

**Criminal Minds**

**Turning Point**

_Author's Note: _

_So I made my brother go to this link without even telling him what it was, which was fun. He loved it (at least, that's what he told me) and left a review. He thanks each and every one of you for reviewing, by the way, and for wishing him a happy birthday. I got more reviews than I expected, so that was an added surprise. Thanks again! Also, to all who wonder about Christmas 2005 – you might be seeing a one shot about that from me shortly. Keep an eye out for it. _

"I don't think he has a_ clue_, Jayje." Penelope Garcia said as they arrived at the club that night; she was dressed in an outfit that would surely leave glitter all over the seat of the car. The two agents of the bureau had driven to the club together; the others would be arriving shortly in their own cars. Morgan, in another attempt to make sure Reid actually arrived at the club, was driving the youngest agent.

"I don't know how they got him to go." JJ confided as she parked the car in the club's lot. "Morgan and Elle, I mean. I tried myself – he usually agrees without a problem, but for some reason he was refusing today."

"That's the superfox for you – king of persuasion." Garcia winked. "Actually, I heard it was a Christmas 2005 threat." She confided, as JJ turned a color of red that hadn't before been seen in nature.

"He wouldn't-"

"Don't worry, I'm guarding that photo with my life, JJ." Garcia said, a devilish smile making its way onto her face. "It's worth quite a lot on the blackmail market-"

JJ was already opening the door of the car and slamming it behind her before Garcia could start laughing.

__

Inside the club, the music was already blaring, and people were making their way to the dance floor. The BAU had crowded themselves around a table in the corner. Morgan was eyeing the ladies at the table across the room until Elle kicked him with a heeled foot underneath the table. Hotch, noticing the antics, raised his eyebrows.

"Your drink's on me." Elle announced to Reid, nodding to a bartender.

"Elle, I can pay for my own drink." Reid said, already wishing he hadn't come here. He wasn't in the mood for the kind of playful attitude a night out entailed.

"Kid, it's your birthday. Don't kill her spirit."

"Or she might kill you." Hotch announced, his usually well hidden teasing spirit coming out. He could only think of how many times that day alone he'd watched his team secretly plan this night.

"I… You…" Reid stuttered, his eyes flitting from Gideon to Hotch to Morgan to Elle to JJ to Garcia and back again. "You remembered?"

"You didn't honestly think we'd forget your birthday, did you?" JJ asked, tilting her head to the side. She could see it in his eyes – he was indeed surprised that they had remembered.

Reid bit his lower lip. "Maybe?" The young agent paused. "There haven't been many times when people _have_ remembered."

Elle reached out and put her arm around his shoulders. "Well, we did."

"We didn't forget last year, either." Gideon reminded him, eyebrows raised, making a mental note to ask Reid about what was bothering him later.

"_Come on, _Reid. You think I'd have brought up Christmas unless it was a real emergency?"

Two agents at the table went a color similar to a red delicious apple. "Yes?" Reid answered the rhetorical question.

"Garcia put me up to it." Morgan announced, pointing a finger in the tech analyst's direction.

"Who, me?" She asked innocently.

"Yes, you, baby girl. And in fact, she photo shopped it. It has a border now. With hearts." Morgan confided, miming a border with a finger. "And that photo isn't the only story from that night, if you do remember yourself." Reid made a noise similar to that of a dying humpback whale.

"Morgan, is this an appropriate discussion?" Hotch asked, viewing the agent in question with hardly disguised curiosity.

"_It was a dare!"_ JJ cried out, letting her head fall to the table.

"I enjoy torturing the two of you as much as the next _chica_," Elle said. "But we have presents."

--

"Me first!" Morgan announced, reaching behind him to grab the wrapped gift.

"I swear to god you are a two year old in a thirty year olds body." Elle said, tapping her fingers on the edge of the table.

"Are we there yet?" He teased.

"Some of us aren't getting any younger." Hotch said, a smile twitching on his lips.

"Here, unwrap mine first." Elle said, handing over her own present and ignoring the heated look from Morgan. Reid began to rip the light blue wrapping paper away. "It's not much." Elle explained. "But I saw it in a bookstore window, and I couldn't help it."

"Elle," Reid began, running his finger along the spine of the book.

"I know it's not much." She began again.

"Elle, it's perfect." He stared at the old copy of a complete collection of Chaucer. "Thank you. This means a lot." Elle's eyes smiled, as Morgan shoved his gift in Reid's face.

"Mine next." He said, handing over a gift wrapped in pink paper.

"It's from the both of us." Garcia explained, leaning closer to Morgan.

Reid idly wondered if he should fear the present in his hands as he ripped away the pink paper.

"You can put the picture in it." Garcia explained as he stared at the bronze frame. "I'll have to blow it up, but …"

Reid stared in horror at the giggling duo. "Why do it?"

"Open the frame, kid. Look in the back." Morgan said, pointing a finger at the frame. "Just do it." He said in response to Reid's pointed glare.

"If there's a picture in here, Morgan, I swear…" He said as he pulled out the glass, watching something fall to the ground. He stooped and picked it up, brow furrowed.

"Tickets?"

"They're for the comic con. In new York." Garcia said. "You can take anyone you want."

Reid's answering smile was astounding. "Thanks, guys." He paused. "I'll find someone to take, I guess."

"I'm sure you will, pretty boy." Morgan said with a wink, as Gideon spoke up.

"This is from Hotch and I." He said, handing over a plain envelope, which Reid unsealed with a finger.

"Plane tickets to Las Vegas?" Reid asked, looking from Gideon to Hotch and back again.

Gideon nodded as Hotch said, "You haven't been out there since our last case there. Just do us a favor and …"

"Don't let myself get caught by an UnSub, I know." Reid finished.

"I was going to say to have fun and go to a casino while you're there." Hotch said, hiding a smile.

"I could try that too." Reid admitted, looking both Gideon and Hotch in the eyes before putting the tickets in his wallet. "Thanks."

"I guess I'm the only one left." JJ said, pushing her present across the table. "It seems kind of stupid now." She muttered.

"I'm sure it's not." Reid assured her, smiling before ripping away the purple paper and revealing something soft of the same color inside. He pushed the paper aside and pulled out the fabric.

"It's a scarf." JJ said bluntly. "It's, um, purple."

"I can see that." Reid said, trying to hide the smile that was creeping onto his face. He wrapped the scarf around his neck. "How do I look?"

"Dashing." Garcia said, grinning.

"I'll wear it to the next case, then." He said, smiling at JJ.

"You don't have to-" She started, feeling her cheeks go red.

"I want to." Reid said, sounding quite sure. "Thanks, JJ." With a smile, he looked to the group around him – more his family than he'd ever realized before. Did they know that they'd made this one of the best birthdays he'd had – there'd only been a few in his adult life that anyone had recognized. If they did even have an inkling of just how great they'd made a usually depressing day, Reid didn't think that they could possibly know just how much it had done for him.

--

It was three in the morning when Reid finally made it back to his apartment. After presents, the night had been great. Elle – and Reid wasn't sure that she'd been exactly in her right mind at the moment – had tried to teach him how to salsa to pop music, which hadn't exactly worked, and he didn't think it would have even if salsa music had been playing. Reid was pretty sure that Morgan and Garcia had new pictures to blackmail him with. Gideon had taken a side seat, as he usually did in these events, watching the scene through wizened eyes.

Reid had even danced with JJ, who had more of an idea how to dance to pop music than Elle did, another even that he was sure had been saved for the rest of eternity on camera. In fact, he wasn't surprised if he found a scrapbook one day of Morgan and Garcia's blackmail pictures.

Hotch had even danced. Reid wasn't sure, though, if Garcia and Morgan had been daring enough to get pictures of _that_.

Never the less, it had been a fantastic birthday, and the tickets to Las Vegas that sat on his desk now seemed to be looking at him instead of the other way around. Pulling out a fresh piece of paper, Reid began to pen a letter to his mother, telling her that he'd be visiting that weekend.

Perhaps she'd remember, maybe she wouldn't.

But Reid had suddenly found a new way of looking at it- every day, to his mother, was his birthday. She treated him like that every day, and she was there for him, always, when he needed her.

And that was all he needed.

--

_End_

_Author's Note: _

_Yes, yes, Christmas 2005 will be seen as a story of mine one day. Be on the lookout for that. _

_Happy birthday, 'Spence'. _


End file.
